Tam Lin – Fairport Convention / Traquair House Ale
I could have chosen any version of Child Ballad 39A – I have something approaching twenty in my own collection (considerably more if you include print), and there is a seemingly endless supply beyond that – but I’m a big fan of this particular one. As you are probably aware, the song tells the story of Janet (also called Margaret in some versions), who must rescue her lover, Tam Lin (insert many variants here as well) from the Queen of the Fairies, who has been keeping him captive at Carterhaugh, a wooded area near Selkirk in Scotland. Appropriately enough, there is fine beer to be had locally – Traquair House Brewery’s excellent House Ale and Jacobite Ale are both perfect tie-ins.

Lord Of The Ages – Magna Carta / Weyerbacher Old Heathen
Perhaps you have friends who aren’t quite sure what prog rock is. In response, you might have gone easy on them, offering up some Jethro Tull, but why hold back? This track, released in 1973, has everything: lyrics that might have been borrowed from Tolkien-inspired fan fiction (‘Lord of the Ages rode one night / Out through the gateways of time / Astride a great charger / In a cloak of white samite…’ – you get the idea), a ‘rocking out’ section toward the end, a little chanting and a nearly 10-minute running time. You may need a strong drink after listening to it, so a Weyerbacher Old Heathen should be just the thing.

Widdicombe Fair – The City Waites / Hambleton’s Nightmare Porter
The most well-known version of the comedic West Country folksong was collected in 1888 by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, whose career as an antiquarian, songwriter, correspondent, novelist and folklorist is, perhaps, the classic example of why being a wealthy 19th century churchman was pretty awesome. In the song, a number of stock characters (possibly or possibly not based on real 18th century people from the town of Widecombe in the Moor) borrow a horse to visit the eponymous fair; the mare dies from the effort of hauling a goodly portion of the village around, and returns as a ghost with all aboard. The song, as interpreted by The City Waites, puts the emphasis on the comedy. Although hailing from an entirely different moorland (Yorkshire rather than Devon), Hambleton’s Nightmare Porter still works, and rather nicely too.

Damn These Vampires – The Mountain Goats / Great Lakes Nosferatu
I know, vampires are presently extremely uncool, given their sparkly associations with teenage girls who fear actual boys, but this song recalls a time (not so long ago) when they were still dangerous as well as glamorous (and, frankly, a lot more interesting). Luckily, there is a beer than can help you forget the Twi-hards (or could be employed with caution in a related drinking game, though one suspects that it would be easy to see such a game reach Withnailian proportions) –Great Lakes Nosferatu. This big, red beer is one to look forward to every fall (rather unlike Twilight movies, unless your capacity for ironic viewing is unparalleled).